Advice to Dhoni

[The Realist]

Thing is Dhoni appears to be getting worse as a batsman. When he first came on the scene he did not have a wide range of shots but scored fast. Now is shots appear even more limited and his strike rate is declining alarmingly. If Dravid played the kind of innings Dhoni played, the former would have been slaughtered. The disturbing thing thesedays is that Dravid actually looks a better T20 batsman than Dhoni whose batting has appears to have gone backwards.

[vvvslaxman]

He should use Irfan/Harbahjan batting ability against spin as and when needed if he is not able to score faster.

[King Tendulkar]

Ha sthe burden of captaincy effected his batting? He used to bat with gay abandon. Now he bats like he feels the resbonsibilty of being captain and not looking silly by getting out to big shots.

[rahulrulezz]

lol if we had extra 15 runs then they had 7 wickets and 7 balls spare ... look all im saying is that this guy has lead the team well ... its not like only he failed then why is he getting singled out ? He wanted to make sure that we had enough batsmen to slog in the end but he didnt last long enough to slog .. What do u do when SRT fails in a match ? or how many games to you wait b4 u criticize Dravid , Kumble and all ... Have some faith

but D_C yaar, he is doing tihs on a constant basis... its coz of him, Chennai Kings were out of IPL... even in last 2 matches in T20, he played at a very slow strike rate... i myself am the biggest fan of Dhoni but i m not gonna support him blindly...even in Srilanka in that T20 match, Dhoni almost lost us that match till 'Pathan Dhamaka happened'.. even Bravo came after 2 wickets but what was the difference.. he kept nudging around for 1s and 2s...on the other hand, Dhoni kept wasting the balls... Dhoni is doing this for a while and its time people and media bring this in the limelight... regarding SRT, he never "lost us" the match..under pressure, he takes singles and doubles...

[Desi Cartman]

Reason is he is the one who opted to bat first. He does that every time rain or shine. Every time India gets into a situation where they are in danger of posting a below par total for that surface. Every time Dhoni is being the culprit. He should opt to chase in case he doesn't know what the heck his team is going to do when they set targets.

so he should have planned better for top 3 failing ? then he should have played like UV and saved the match ... I agree but thats too much to ask .. he tried to put the best XI together ... gave the shot makers a chance to have a go (al though he should have allowed others to bat at #3 in previous games) ... then he set good fields , changed bowlers well , kept gayle in check ... and in the end we lost ... but who gets the blame ? RS - No GG - No Raina -No Bhajji - NO I Sharma -NO Ojha - No Dhoni - Yes Please tell me from the list above , who is not to be blamed ALONG with Dhoni ?

[King Tendulkar]

or strangley maybe his game has evolved to be a good solid run accumlator and he is simply not suited to explosive batting in 20/20. In odis he is perfect as singles with the odd boundary is superb. I just dont think 20/20 is his game

[graphic23]

Ha sthe burden of captaincy effected his batting? He used to bat with gay abandon. Now he bats like he feels the resbonsibilty of being captain and not looking silly by getting out to big shots.

Thats actually what I was thinking as well. For the last two years, he's been so consistent as a batsman in the ODI format, and has come under all sorts of situations and has managed to contribute in a significant manner to the team. On the field, he's been terrific for the most part as a captain. I think for the firs time, he's experiencing pressure as a captain because of his loss of form. For all he's done to transform the team in the last two years, he deserves some patience. Today was a very very painful knock, and I'm sure he and the team management know it better than anyone else. I hope there are some changes in Dhoni as a batsman or in the batting order such that the other batsman get maximum batting time as they are in better touch than he is in.

[The Outsider]

Someone should muster up the courage and really tell Dhoni straight on - "Enough is Enough". It's not as if this came as a surprise or was a one off thing. Many people saw this coming - yes we won a few matches despite his batting lacking any urgency or situational awareness but the problem was there for all to see. Now that we have actually lost a crucial match because of this, this nonsense must be put to a stop immediately. Even Harbhajan is a better T20 batsman than Dhoni - 4 overs is 1/5th of an entire T20 innings and to score 10 runs in any situation of a T20 match in 4 overs is simply unacceptable. Sehwag's absence is hurting us in more ways than one - it would have been Rohit Sharma in the middle order instead of Dhoni unless of course Dhoni would have still come in. Raina was in such superb touch during the IPL but was not given a chance to bat at all in the practice matches and against minnows and now suddenly thrown in at number 3 in an important match. The strategy lacks any coherence - I just hope Kirsten can have a firm word with him about his approach. He should ideally be batting at number 9.

[Desi Cartman]

but D_C yaar, he is doing tihs on a constant basis... its coz of him, Chennai Kings were out of IPL... even in last 2 matches in T20, he played at a very slow strike rate... i myself am the biggest fan of Dhoni but i m not gonna support him blindly...even in Srilanka in that T20 match, Dhoni almost lost us that match till 'Pathan Dhamaka happened'.. even Bravo came after 2 wickets but what was the difference.. he kept nudging around for 1s and 2s...on the other hand, Dhoni kept wasting the balls... Dhoni is doing this for a while and its time people and media bring this in the limelight... regarding SRT, he never "lost us" the match..under pressure, he takes singles and doubles...

for SRT ... Im sorry to say .. yes he did .. few and its bound to happen in everybody's career ... In this case please see my post above and tell me from the list that who is not to be blamed along with Dhoni ?

[sharma]

i support dhoni always but 11 off 23 in a t20 game is just unacceptable.

[zubinpepsi]

WTF soomeone is defending dhoni ... :hysterical::hysterical: desi was sleeping when dhobi was nudging n cudnt even get a single.... this is not the 1st dhoni is doing this.. he has been doing this for god knows how long..

[King Tendulkar]

or just go out with the licence to be a pinch hitter. Promted when spinners come in and try to smoke it, with no reprecussions if he gets out as he has the licence to go balisitic. It may come of at times and rekindle the old magic. Also must start drinking a litre of buffalo milk a day again

[vvvslaxman]

Please tell me from the list above , who is not to be blamed ALONG with Dhoni ?

Whose fault it was not to let Raina a bit of game in the practice match? Why did he have to come up the order when match was in the bag against say Ireland or even Pakistan? He is the one who opted to bat first. He should know what target his team is going after. If you are going there like a rudderless ship it means you don't have any idea about what target to set. So field first. Let them get the runs. You then plan your innings.

[Desi Cartman]

WTF soomeone is defending dhoni ... :hysterical::hysterical: desi was sleeping when dhobi was nudging n cudnt even get a single.... this is not the 1st dhoni is doing this.. he has been doing this for god knows how long..

but yaar is he the ONLY one responsible ? that I sharma has been playing intl cricket for 2 years but he still cant bowl yorkers ? Our top flopped and Im in no way saying that what MSD is doing is correct .. all Im saying is that this reaction is OTT and there are others at fault as well

[rahulrulezz]

Someone should muster up the courage and really tell Dhoni straight on - "Enough is Enough". It's not as if this came as a surprise or was a one off thing. Many people saw this coming - yes we won a few matches despite his batting lacking any urgency or situational awareness but the problem was there for all to see. Now that we have actually lost a crucial match because of this' date= this nonsense must be put to a stop immediately. Even Harbhajan is a better T20 batsman than Dhoni - 4 overs is 1/5th of an entire T20 innings and to score 10 runs in any situation of a T20 match in 4 overs is simply unacceptable. Sehwag's absence is hurting us in more ways than one - it would have been Rohit Sharma in the middle order instead of Dhoni unless of course Dhoni would have still come in. Raina was in such superb touch during the IPL but was not given a chance to bat at all in the practice matches and against minnows and now suddenly thrown in at number 3 in an important match. The strategy lacks any coherence - I just hope Kirsten can have a firm word with him about his approach. He should ideally be batting at number 9.

Valid points

[The Outsider]

so he should have planned better for top 3 failing ? then he should have played like UV and saved the match ... I agree but thats too much to ask .. he tried to put the best XI together ... gave the shot makers a chance to have a go (al though he should have allowed others to bat at #3 in previous games) ... then he set good fields , changed bowlers well , kept gayle in check ... and in the end we lost ... but who gets the blame ? RS - No GG - No Raina -No Bhajji - NO I Sharma -NO Ojha - No Dhoni - Yes Please tell me from the list above , who is not to be blamed ALONG with Dhoni ?

Rohit Sharma, Gambhir, Harbhajan, Ojha all did well in earlier matches. Raina never really got an opportunity till today. Ishant is being criticized as well, but Dhoni has been doing it match after match. Do you see the difference? The blame is not for this particular match per say, anyone can have a poor game. The blame is for adopting a completely fecked up batting strategy and batting at a RR of 2.5 RPO in a god damn T20 and doing it on a regular basis.

[zubinpepsi]

Someone should muster up the courage and really tell Dhoni straight on - "Enough is Enough". It's not as if this came as a surprise or was a one off thing. Many people saw this coming - yes we won a few matches despite his batting lacking any urgency or situational awareness but the problem was there for all to see. Now that we have actually lost a crucial match because of this, this nonsense must be put to a stop immediately. Even Harbhajan is a better T20 batsman than Dhoni - 4 overs is 1/5th of an entire T20 innings and to score 10 runs in any situation of a T20 match in 4 overs is simply unacceptable. Sehwag's absence is hurting us in more ways than one - it would have been Rohit Sharma in the middle order instead of Dhoni unless of course Dhoni would have still come in. Raina was in such superb touch during the IPL but was not given a chance to bat at all in the practice matches and against minnows and now suddenly thrown in at number 3 in an important match. The strategy lacks any coherence - I just hope Kirsten can have a firm word with him about his approach. He should ideally be batting at number 9.

++ why raina has not been given any practice at all.. if Raina is gonna play at no.3, shudnt he have got some practice.. all these warmup matches n against minnows, u hot all the strike n play a painful knock n then u go n hide behind against a better bowling.. wat a feckedup logic is that?? Dhoni should bat at no.9 thts where he belongs now.

[vvvslaxman]

but yaar is he the ONLY one responsible ? that I sharma has been playing intl cricket for 2 years but he still cant bowl yorkers ? Our top flopped and Im in no way saying that what MSD is doing is correct .. all Im saying is that this reaction is OTT and there are others at fault as well

India did excellent well in the first 6 overs. They picked Gayle's wicket. Bowlers were against a superb batsman in the zone. It was that kind of a pitch where you could hit through the line. Not much turn. Not much swing or anything. India was alteast 20 runs short. Add to the fact indian fielding was horrible including Dhoni who missed a run out opportunity.

[Desi Cartman]

Whose fault it was not to let Raina a bit of game in the practice match? Why did he have to come up the order when match was in the bag against say Ireland or even Pakistan? He is the one who opted to bat first. He should know what target his team is going after. If you are going there like a rudderless ship it means you don't have any idea about what target to set. So field first. Let them get the runs. You then plan your innings.

ok so 11 run ke liye jaan le le bachay ki :hitler: btw he did mention that he was setting up himself to go for the slog but he failed .. aur kya karay woh ? I agree with your pint regarding batting @3 .. but maybe he was trying to bat himself into some sort of form ... He has lead India to many victories , if he has messed up a game or 2 then its ok ..

[rahulrulezz]

for SRT ... Im sorry to say .. yes he did .. few and its bound to happen in everybody's career ... In this case please see my post above and tell me from the list that who is not to be blamed along with Dhoni ?

d_c bhai, lets not bring SRT into this... he is a legend and genuine matchwinner and thats it.. yes, Rohit, Raina and Gambhir were to blamed but thats there style of batting...agressive...which might not come off once in a while....but Dhoni just totally changed his batting style from agressive to pure defensive style batting.... its a LOSE-LOSE batting batting aproach in T20.. max it can take u 130 ... its like Dhoni ka kutta, Naa Ghar ka naa Ghatt ka....... and ya, i agree Ishant bowled pathetically.. RP Singh deserves to come back